Increase sought for cemetery

Saturday

Oct 27, 2012 at 1:15 PM

Luke Smucker

When residents of Sullivan Township go to vote Nov. 6, they will have to decide if they will approve an increase to the cemetery fund levy.Last March, voters were asked to separately approve the township taking over the West Lawn Cemetery and increasing the fund to tend the property.Ballots cast overwhelmingly supported taking over the cemetery (61 percent yes) from the Cullom Centennial Fund, but increasing the fee to care for the property narrowly failed.This election, officials are trying to educate the voters about the money needed for cemetery upkeep. Voters are being asked to approve a tax increase of 0.10 percent of the equalized assessed value of property and both Kip Harms, a board of trustee on the Sullivan Township Board and Carl Krause, chair of the cemetery committee for the Cullom Centennial West Lawn Cemetery, hope voters will be more informed on exactly what they are voting on. Last March, 54 percent of the voters said “no” on the proposal to increase taxes in order to keep the cemetery running. After that vote, Harms said the consensus was that the reason the public voted “no” was because the tax rate the township asked for was too high. Harms said their original thinking was that as future rates go up, more money would be needed and they didn’t want to come back and ask for an increase to the tax rate in the future.“We’ve lowered the tax levy compared to what we were asking for originally and I think it’s more in-line with where it should have been. All-in-all, it’s a small amount, but with the economy and money being so tight, people thought it was too much for what was needed.”The new proposed tax is for a .10 of the percent of the equalized assessed value. What that will do, Krause said, is raise approximately $14,000 if it is levied at its max amount. For example, Krause said on 40-acres of farmland, the increase would raise taxes about $9.77. On a $100,000 home, it would increase the taxes by $42.“In this economy that may not be easy money to spend,” said Krause. “But that is our hope and plan. It would be up to the township, but their idea is to keep the levy as low as possible and only raise enough to cover the expenses.”Members from both the Sullivan Township Board and the cemetery committee will be holding an informational open house to answer any questions on Nov. 1 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Sullivan Township Building, Cullom. No formal presentation will be given, but Krause will offer a handout and then answer any questions people have directly.“I don’t think some people fully understand what we’re doing. We were approached by the West Lawn owners, who suggested that we as a township should own both cemeteries. Our thinking was, we never had the funds for the other cemetery. By owning both of them, the expense there is getting to be more than we had estimated, so we need a special fund. This way it’s taken care of for life.”At its current rate, Krause said the projection is that in five or six years, there will be no money to maintain the cemetery. He said it is also a very real fear that if this doesn’t pass, West Lawn Cemetery will end up on the same list as other cemeteries that are unable to earn enough to pay their expenses.“I think the people are unsure of an additional tax,” said Krause. “But we are hoping by having the informational open house, we can explain things to people a little better.”